Meet the Venture Capitalist Getting Professional Athletes Into Startup InvestingJeff Jordan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, specializes in marketplace businesses and has a strong thesis about the importance of network effects. He led investments in Airbnb, Instacart, Pinterest, and LimeBike. Before professionally investing, Jordan served as the CEO of OpenTable and president of PayPal. In the Valley, Jordan is also known for mentoring investors with non-tech backgrounds. One examples is Golden State Warriors player Andre Iguodala, who credits Jordan for helping him learn about startup investing. [ Fortune ] Abu Dhabi's Mubadala sets up VC shop in Silicon ValleyMubadala, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund with $125 billion in assets under management, is opening its first U.S. office in San Francisco as it enters the venture capital business. It also is launching a $400 million venture fund in partnership with Japan's SoftBank Group, and a $200 million VC fund-of-funds. Why it matters: Sovereign wealth funds are increasing their attention to high-growth tech startups in Silicon Valley, with some like Singapore's Temasek and the Qatar Investment Authority also opening West Coast outposts. "It's more than just setting up an office — it's a real committed and genuine intent to be an active member of this community," Ibrahim Ajami, head of Mubadala's VC arm, tells Axios. The pitch: Mubadala hopes to impress startups with its deep pockets and its ability to provide introductions to its existing businesses in sectors like telecom, semiconductors, aerospace, and real estate. Expect an exclusive focus on enterprise startups in areas like robotics, life sciences, and software. [ Axios ] Airbnb vet launches VC fundAirbnb's former head of data science, Riley Newman, has quietly formed a venture firm with David Rosenthal (ex-Madrona Venture Group). Sources say that it's called Wave Capital, and is raising $35 million for its debut fund focused on early-stage marketplace startups, with a $50 million hard cap.
Blockchain Investment Trends In ReviewA data-driven deep dive on the evolution of the blockchain landscape — and how VCs, token sales, and consortia are shaping its future. In 2008, at the height of the Great Recession, Bitcoin’s anonymous creator(s) proposed a “peer-to-peer transfer of virtual cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” One year later, the first Bitcoin block was mined. Max Levchin on the Future of FinTech, Equifax and Bitcoin Max Levchin, chief executive officer of Affirm and co-founder of PayPal, discusses the future of financial technology with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on "Bloomberg Markets." [ Bloomberg ] How the Frightful Five Put Start-Ups in a Lose-Lose SituationThe tech giants are too big. But so what? Hasn’t that always been the case? As the men who run Silicon Valley will be the first to tell you, a company’s size doesn’t matter here. For every lumbering Goliath, there are always one or two smarter, faster Davids just now starting up in some fabled garage, getting ready to slay the giants when they least expect it. So if you’re worried about the power of the Frightful Five — Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft — just look at how IBM, Hewlett-Packard or monopoly-era Microsoft fell to earth. They were all victims of “creative destruction,” of an “innovator’s dilemma,” the theories that bolster Silicon Valley’s vision of itself as a roiling sea of pathbreaking upstarts, where the very thing that made you big also makes you vulnerable. Well, maybe not this time. [ NY Times ] NYC Next Geneation Commerce Startup MapNew York City has a rich and storied history of entrepreneurship. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the NextGen Commerce (NGC) realm, where you’ll find the bulk of startups valued at over $100 million. From the successful media and advertising companies of the 1990s to the emergence of consumer commerce disruptors over the past decade, that culture of entrepreneurship has been passed down from generation to generation. [ Alley Watch ]Coursera’s chief product officer just left to become a VCTom Willerer, who has spent the last four years with the online education company Coursera — the last two as its chief product officer — is moving on from the outfit to become a venture capitalist. Specifically, Willerer is joining Venrock, a venture firm founded nearly 50 years ago to build off the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family. [ TechCrunch ] Blue Apron Says It Cut 6% of Workforce for `Future Growth'Blue Apron Holdings Inc. has cut 6 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring that Chief Executive Officer Matt Salzberg said was necessary for the meal-kit company’s “future growth” and profitability. “We identified the need to reduce some roles, open others, and streamline decision making for greater accountability,” Salzberg said Wednesday in a letter to employees. “I’m confident that the changes we made today will make our organization stronger.” [ BloomBerg ] PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel ties the knot with longtime boyfriend during ceremony held in Austria Crunchbase News Projected Seed Rounds Deals And Money Walmart says it will acquire more startupsSilicon Valley unicorns are dying off, says VC Jenny LeeEx-Google exec: Sun may be setting on Silicon ValleyWHY SILICON VALLEY IS GOING GAGA FOR BITCOINGuardian Media Group to launch new £42 million venture capital fund - GMG VenturesYour Strategic Guide to a Successful StartUp CareerDuo Security raises $70 million at a valuation north of $1 billionApple’s AR Bets, Amazon’s Rumored Alexa Glasses, And Facebook’s New Headset: How 12 Tech Corporates Are Going After AR/VRThis Evernote cofounder says Silicon Valley's favorite fasting diet has changed his life — here's his routine |